Non-native accents
Hello :- )
I was just wondering... how many non-native Spanish speakers (from here on the site) cannot tell when another non-native has an accent?
I was reading the thread about improving the "learn Spanish" videos, and there was a comment about Paralee's accent. I guess some people cannot tell that she has an American accent while speaking Spanish...
Also, is this common? Does one have to be advanced in Spanish to notice the difference?
Thanks!
EDIT: I wanted to say that there are some non-native Spanish speakers who cannot tell when another non-native Spanish speaker has an accent (while speaking Spanish).
9 Answers
A lot of people whose mother tongue is not Spanish and don't even speak good Spanish can easily tell when someone speaking Spanish is not a native. I bet many of my English friends who can only say a few sentences in Spanish could spot, say, Paralee as a non-native of Spanish just by hearing the first sentence, and many people will be able to confidently spot her native accent as American while she speaks Spanish (I certainly can).
Very few people above 16 y.o. develop an accent in a foreign language so good so that people barely notice, but having said that, I've met people over 20 who spoke with the same native accent that I use; I can recall two girls (one from Russia and another one from Austria) who would fool any Spaniard for years if they pretended to be Spaniards. But not everyone has such a talent for languages.
When foreigners speak English in Europe, I can tell most of the time whether they are from Germany (or from Austria), Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Norway or Sweden, or other Eastern European countries with languages that I don't know well enough to differentiate among their accents, although I bet it is not so difficult once you get used to them. I can also tell whether they are Japanese or Chinese without seeing their face.
An accent is typically picked up from where you have learned the langauge, if you learn a language later in life, you will carry the accent of your first langauge more in other langauges (think of people who speak english who are from other countries, you can usually tell right away even if thier english is good right?). If you learn a langauge as a child it will be more familiar, or internalized, and therefore you should hear less of an accent. But each area will have its own accents as well...i remember meeting a guy from Columbia on the streets of vancouver and him asking me "why i sound like a indigenous mexican person" when i speak spanish...and that was kind of amazing to me because after years of travelling and learning spanish in different countries and from different sources, i still have the accent of the people i originally learned spanish from when i was a kid, and its still recognizable years later! Of course the more you imerse yourself the less obvious accent you will probably have, i know when i dont go to Mexico for a while, my accent tends to get "more white" but after a few weeks of being thiere the people tell me i "sound normal again"
Hello Aquí and Welcome to the SpanishDict forum 
I could certainly tell that she was an American lady speaking Spanish. Her Spanish pronounciation is good but her accent is obviously non-native. I do not think you would need to ba a native speaker or even an advanced Spanish speaker to work that one out 
You would know it if you have spoken enough with native Spanish speakers.
I speak other languages: French Brazilian Portuguese and more recently, Italian and have developed through practice /experience a kind of inner voice to know what people sound like when speaking the first three of these languages: Spanish, French, and Brazillian Portugueese as a native. In fact in my church we have a native from France and Brazil so I can regularly hear these accents.
Perhaps the phrase inner voice is inaccurate and could be misleading but I can find no other way right now to explain how I have internalised the accents not in a rigid way nor am I claiming that I can distinguish between the Spanish accents spoken in all the different regions of Spain or South America. It is a little like being able to play music by ear (which I can also do) I can hear the sounds of all the notes in my head and reproduce them on a piano the difference between middle C and b natural or Bb (flat)
I hope this helps 
I like to think that I have a better-than-average ear for accents, and I can pretty typically tell when someone is speaking with a non-native accent in Spanish. However, I do sometimes mislabel native accents, e.g., Mexican for Castilian (I know, but the guy had a very rich voice that I normally attribute to Spaniards, but he didn't speak with a ceceo). I don't believe that one needs to have a very finely tuned Spanish ear to hear differences between native and non-native accents, especially because those who don't speak a language with a native accent usually speak considerably slower due to having to think in a foreign language (likely due to the "OK threshold").
Something interesting that I learned about accents while studying a Brooklyn, New York English accent for theater was that accents, beyond pronunciation, come from the place in which we articulate the sounds of our language. The general American accent is usually from about the center of the cheeks, Brooklyn is at the front of the jaw, Australian is in the cheek bones, and Irish is about two inches in front of the face. This explains a warm-up exercise we did where we'd place our hands on various points from which one could articulate sounds and speak from there. It would change our voice and its resonance.
Knowing this, it's rather interesting to try speaking from different points in the head, throat, and neck to try and fiddle around with one's accent. I'm also curious if this could help students have better accents. It's possible that a lot of people's "accents" in a foreign language are just them trying to articulate from non-native part of the body.
I theorize, and I haven't really done any research on this theory, that this is why people tend to lose their accents when they sing. Many people are taught to sing from a specific point on their body, and that changes one's accent.
My inaccurate grammar and usage is always a dead giveaway, However people from the south of México tell me I have the northern Méxican accent.
Since I only have experience with Mexico. I can tell north from south without difficulty. and the particular accent of Monterrey.
Non native speakers are easy to spot, for two reasons, their word usage does not follow the local pattern and certain pronunciations that differ from the Spanish to whatever their mother language is, or was.
I think I can usually tell when a non-native has an accent. (for some reason I delight in hearing Spanish spoken with a French accent) However at my stage of learning I can't always hear the accents between native speakers from different countries (except Spain, that one is easy).
Here's a different twist on the accent question:
I was in México for 3 weeks in an immersion program. We were not allowed to speak English at all. There were two other students attending. One was from Boston and the other was from Texas, both areas with strong regional accents. When they spoke Spanish, all I heard was two people speaking Spanish that were obviously from the USA. At the times that they broke from the rules I was shocked to suddenly hear the very strong Boston and Texas accents.
I can tell. because native spanish speakers speak very quickly while non- native speak a little bit slower usually.
Según mi opinión , quien aprendió una lengua en edad adulta, tiene acento no nativos sin falta. Pero no importa. Lo esencial es que la gente puede se comprender.
According to my opinion , who learned a language as grown up, has an foreign accent by all means, But that is not a problem . The essential to understand each other
I can tell when someone isn't a native Spanish speaker and I'm an English native. My very first Spanish teacher had the strongest American accent ever.
